Delhi man scammed out of ₹11 cr on pretext of selling plot in Greater Noida, 1 arrested

The fraudulent deal began in 2023 when Singhal, along with his brother Gaurav Singhal, approached property dealers in search of land in Greater Noida

The Greater Noida police have arrested a 55-year-old man in connection with a fraudulent land deal that defrauded a Delhi-based businessman of over ₹11 crore. The arrest was made on Monday evening at the Malakpur roundabout in Greater Noida, officers said on Tuesday.

When they inquired about the ownership transfer documents for the Surajpur plot, the accused provided various excuses, claiming that additional fees and approvals were pending. (Representative image)

The accused, Nadeem Ahmed, is a resident of Sadar Bazaar in Delhi and was apprehended based on intelligence inputs and technical surveillance, deputy commissioner of police (Gautam Budh Nagar) Shakti Mohan Avasthy said. Ahmed, along with seven others, allegedly duped Paras Ram Singhal, a 50-year-old businessman from East of Kailash, Delhi, and his company, Kalka Ji Craft Paper, by promising them an industrial plot in Greater Noida that they never delivered.

The fraudulent deal began in 2023 when Singhal, along with his brother Gaurav Singhal, approached property dealers in search of land in Greater Noida. The dealers introduced them to Mohsin, one of the accused, who claimed to represent trading firms in Surajpur, Greater Noida, the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the complainant revealed.

According to the FIR, Mohsin and his associates offered to sell the Singhal brothers an industrial plot in Surajpur, but with the condition that they first repay a loan tied to the property. “We agreed to the condition and proceeded with the deal,” the FIR said.

“An agreement was reached and in the subsequent months, we paid ₹10.8 crore to (private limited) company to repay the loan. We received receipts acknowledging the repayments, and in July 2023 we got a letter saying the loan was repaid in full,” said the complainant in the FIR.

However, when they inquired about the ownership transfer documents for the Surajpur plot, the accused provided various excuses, claiming that additional fees and approvals were pending. In November 2023, the Singhal brothers transferred an additional ₹1.14 crore but still did not receive the ownership documents. It was only in December, after being denied access to the property by company representatives who claimed the loan was unpaid, that they realised they had been scammed, the DCP informed.

Based on the complaint, an FIR was registered at the Surajpur police station against the nine named accused, under charges of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code. The nine accused were identified as Nadeem Ahmed, Nasra Begum and her children Mohsin, Asiya, Afsiya and Insiya; Mohammad Sabir; Sadiya Kamil and unidentified proprietors of the said private limited company, said the DCP.

“Nadeem Ahmed was arrested by the police on Monday evening from Malakpur roundabout in Greater Noida. While Ahmed has been taken into custody, his accomplices are being traced and further investigation is underway,” said DCP Avasthy.